Kate is our dedicated welfare office. Their role is to ensure we comply with the policies and wealth of supporting material that the British Fencing Association develop and publish. We are also lucky that our head coach is our safety officer and monitors safety during the sessions as defined for coaches in the Club risk assessment.
Kate is always happy to discuss any issues in the strictest confidence and can also be contacted by phone or email – please email [email protected] for their contact details.
Their focus is very much on juniors and vulnerable adults but the welfare officer and all our coaches take great care to ensure all good practice is followed.
We believe that the welfare of children and adults at risk is everyone’s responsibility, particularly when it comes to protecting children from abuse. Everyone in fencing – administrator, club official, coach, parent, friend, children themselves, everyone – can help.
BF Affiliated Clubs and BF Licensed Events must all have a nominated Welfare Official. This is part of our commitment as a National Governing Body to uphold the NSPCC CPSU safeguarding in sport framework, aligning to standard practice in order to create the safest environment possible to take part in sport.
Find out more here.
Our welfare officer have a good understanding of the British Fencing Association’s (BFA) policies. They have DBS clearance and have attended all the welfare courses and training required to ensure that he appears on the current BFA Welfare Officer Register as an accredited Club Welfare Officer.
One small example of this is that we try to ask everyone whether they are happy for us to show their photographs on our facebook page and website, but while we operate on an opt-out basis for adults we ask parents and guardians to opt-in for children and vulnerable adults. This is just one of the documents that can be found in the BFA Welfare Zone (above).
All Bath Sword Club coaches are DBS checked and have up to date accreditation in terms of Child Protection and First Aid and appear on the BFA Coach Register.
Please find more about our Constitution, Data Protection, Privacy and others here .